(YELLOW-BILLED COOT.)
+Fulica leucoptera+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 505 (Paraná);
_Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 140; _iid. P. Z. S._ 1868, p. 468;
_iid. Ex. Orn._ pl. lx. p. 119; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 195
(Buenos Ayres); _White, P. Z. S._ 1883, p. 42 (Cordova);
_Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 277 (Carhué, Pampas); _Withington,
Ibis_, 1888, p. 472 (Lomas de Zamora).
_Description._--Dark slaty; head and neck black; crissum white, with
a black median patch; bend of wing and outer margin of external
primary, also the tips of some of the secondaries, white; bill
yellow; head-shield rounded behind; feet olivaceous: whole length
15·0 inches, wing 7·8, tail 2·0. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, and Bolivia.
This is perhaps the most abundant species of _Fulica_ in the Plata
region, and certainly congregates in the largest numbers. The colour of
the beak and shield is of a very delicate yellow; the legs and feet dull
green; the head, neck, and part of the back velvet-black; all the rest
of the plumage dark slate-colour, except the under coverts of the tail,
which are white, and render the bird very conspicuous when it is
swimming away with the tail raised vertically.
On the pampas, in large marshy lagoons, this Coot is sometimes seen in
immense numbers; thousands of birds uniting in one flock, and spreading
over the low shores to feed, they look like a great concourse of Rooks.
But they are exceedingly timid, and at the sight of a bird of prey or
other enemy they all scuttle back to the water, tumbling over each other
in their haste to reach it. They rise in a peculiar manner, rapidly
striking the surface of the water with their great lobed feet, often for
a distance of twenty or thirty yards before they are fully launched in
the air. They are loquacious birds, and when swimming about concealed
among the thick rushes are heard answering each other in a variety of
curious tones, some of their loud, hollow-sounding, reiterated cries
resembling peals of laughter.
The nest is a slovenly structure of rushes lying on the water, with a
very slight depression for the eggs, which are ten or twelve in number.
These are long, pointed at one end, dull cream-colour, marked over the
whole surface with small blackish and purple spots.
Fam. XLIV. ARAMIDÆ, or COURLANS.
The Courlans are a peculiar American family, intermediate between the
Cranes and the Rails. Of the two known species, which are nearly allied,
one occurs in the Argentine Republic.